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Gareth Malone

Gareth Malone, choirmaster, is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs.

Gareth Malone is a choirmaster who has coaxed and cajoled people from nervous adults to reluctant teenagers to open their mouths and sing for the pure joy of it - in front of television cameras.

Gareth's first two TV series, which charted his attempts to build successful choirs in schools with little or no tradition of singing together, both won major awards, and gripped and inspired viewers. He has since also worked widely on TV with adult groups from a wide range of backgrounds, and his Military Wives Choir even hit the top of the charts at Christmas.

Once described as a human tuning fork, Gareth loved music from an early age - and as he recalls, his parents and grandmother took a strong interest in his own youthful performances, from his very first school concerts. As a teenager, he felt an outsider amongst his fellow pupils, because he found his music teacher so inspiring. After time spent as a youth worker, and as a music educator, Gareth's TV series have taken him all over the country becoming - in his words - "an evangelist for music.".

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36 minutes

Last on

Fri 30 Dec 2016 09:00
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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Music Played

  • Dmitry Shostakovich

    Symphony No. 5

    Performer: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Mstislav Rostropovich.
    • Symphony No 5.
    • LSO Live.

  • Bryn Terfel & Malcolm Martineau

    Is My Team Ploughing? From A Shropshire Lad

    • The Vagabond.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.

  • The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem

    Rothsea-O

    • The Absolutely Essential 3CD Collection.
    • Big 3.

  • Robert Schumann

    Hör ich das Liedchen klingen

    Performer: Fritz Wunderlich. Performer: Hubert Giesen.
    • Dichterliebe.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.

  • Paul Mealor

    Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal

    Performer: Tenebrae Choir. Conductor: Nigel Short.
    • A Tender Light.
    • Decca.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Soave sia il vento

    Performer: Ann Murray. Performer: Ferruccio Furlanetto. Performer: Kiri Te Kanawa. Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic. Conductor: James Levine.
    • CosΓ¬ Fan Tutte.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.

  • Simon & Garfunkel

    Bridge Over Troubled Water

    • Bridge Over Troubled Water.
    • CBS.

  • CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE

    • Johann Sebastian Bach

      Ehre sei dir, Gott, gesungen

      Performer: English Baroque Soloists. Choir: Monteverdi Choir. Choir: London Oratory Junior Choir. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
      • Bach, J.S.: Christmas Oratorio; St. Matthew Passion; St. John Passion; Mass in B minor.
      • Decca.

  • BOOK CHOICE

    A book to learn French

  • LUXURY ITEM

    A piano

Credits

Presenter Kirsty Young
Interviewed Guest Gareth Malone
Producer Paula McGinley

Broadcasts

  • Christmas Day 2016 11:15
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
  • Fri 30 Dec 2016 09:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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